Is there anything wrong with an intellectual faith?

[Mark Quayle]

It seems to me that intellectual understanding is not of itself sufficient, nor on the other hand, should it be disparaged. The same goes for emotional conviction, for that matter. Even if someone has what seems to them love and admiration for God, and for the gospel of Christ, but does not seem need to be obedient to at least the main two commandments, nor to even their own conscience, but whose god, in the end, "is their belly", such a person has every reason to wonder if he is "in Christ".

In the end, what does the job is God choosing and acting upon us, which WILL bring us to him. Intellectual assent with the Gospel does not. Nor does the force of will, nor the integrity of one's decision for Christ. And certainly not our constancy and faithfulness in obedience.

FAITH is God's gift made in us, from outside ourselves. Satan believes, and trembles. But with Christ taking up residence in us, how can we disbelieve, regardless of intellectual doubt or emotional vagrancies?

 

[Mark Quayle]

I meant to mention also that intellectual pursuit into any aspect of theology or even Christian pursuits of themselves not particularly theological, can be intensely emotional, yet still be other than faith.

But we can not engender faith on our own --it is the gift of God. "God help my unbelief".

 

[CaspianSails]

I have a particular interest in the philosophical and intellectual aspects of the Christian religion, but at the same time, I feel like it's a dead faith to me. Allow me to elaborate. I used to obsess with learning everything I could about Christianity and made sure I had it all right, but multiple times I felt like the Pharisees in the Bible who certainly focused on getting everything right but still missed the point. Also, I feel like there can be a sense of pride or arrogance among the more intellectually inclined, which is what drew me to focus more on introversion and being Spirit-filled. I also started embracing more theologically diverse denominations as I am uncertain about what I believe aside from the basic tenets of the Christian faith that we all share.

Are intellectualism and attempting to understand everything necessarily bad things?

A basic fact of Christianity is that intellectual knowledge alone will not bring you to know Christ in the sense that Christ is truly the only atonement for sin. You know this intellectually but without faith, which is not intellectual it is impossible to please God. One must come face to face with Christ and understand that in our fallen state man is totally depraved in sin and lost to eternal separation from God. However, God in His love and mercy through the cruxification of Christ, where he laid down His life, it was not taken provide all mankind with the availability of the imputed righteousness Christ. One must realize intellectually that one is fallen, through Adam, fully sinful and without hope and come to the cross to find redemption. When one is then indwelt by the Holy Spirit that life of Christ comes alive in you. The Holy Spirit reveals what needs to change to make us more like Christ. Simply put the life of a Christian is a life of service and death remade into life. We must die to self and allow Christ to fulfill His work with us through the Holy Spirit. As we decrease (we die to self) then the likeness of Christ increases. We become like Him. This is Christianity. I saw a play recently and in part of it we see the Spirit of God asking a person simply do you want me to kill it. What was it, was it sin or self, those can be the same. The Spirit kept confronting the man simply asking Do you want me to kill it. The man at one point answers don't as me just do it. The Spirit replied simply, do you want me to kill it. The message was simple. God will not kill the flesh or sin if we are unwilling. We must decide. Finally the man answers yes. He is set free after the death of self.

 

[Mark Quayle]

A basic fact of Christianity is that intellectual knowledge alone will not bring you to know Christ in the sense that Christ is truly the only atonement for sin. You know this intellectually but without faith, which is not intellectual it is impossible to please God. One must come face to face with Christ and understand that in our fallen state man is totally depraved in sin and lost to eternal separation from God. However, God in His love and mercy through the cruxification of Christ, where he laid down His life, it was not taken provide all mankind with the availability of the imputed righteousness Christ. One must realize intellectually that one is fallen, through Adam, fully sinful and without hope and come to the cross to find redemption. When one is then indwelt by the Holy Spirit that life of Christ comes alive in you. The Holy Spirit reveals what needs to change to make us more like Christ. Simply put the life of a Christian is a life of service and death remade into life. We must die to self and allow Christ to fulfill His work with us through the Holy Spirit. As we decrease (we die to self) then the likeness of Christ increases. We become like Him. This is Christianity. I saw a play recently and in part of it we see the Spirit of God asking a person simply do you want me to kill it. What was it, was it sin or self, those can be the same. The Spirit kept confronting the man simply asking Do you want me to kill it. The man at one point answers don't as me just do it. The Spirit replied simply, do you want me to kill it. The message was simple. God will not kill the flesh or sin if we are unwilling. We must decide. Finally the man answers yes. He is set free after the death of self.

There's nothing wrong with Faith being intellectual, as long as it is also real faith. The heart's response to good reason should tell us something along these lines. God is truth.

Intellectual belief is another thing, which in and of itself is not bad, but is useless for salvation unless God uses it for that purpose (in which case I call it intellectual faith).

As those who know me would expect, I take exception to your description of things, particularly your sequence of Cause and Effect as relates to Salvation. I think you have it backwards, as God is the primary mover in all things. He does not need our permission to do whatever he has set out to do. He is not like us.

"Apart from me you can do nothing."

 

[bbbbbbb]

There's nothing wrong with Faith being intellectual, as long as it is also real faith. The heart's response to good reason should tell us something along these lines. God is truth.

Intellectual belief is another thing, which in and of itself is not bad, but is useless for salvation unless God uses it for that purpose (in which case I call it intellectual faith).

As those who know me would expect, I take exception to your description of things, particularly your sequence of Cause and Effect as relates to Salvation. I think you have it backwards, as God is the primary mover in all things. He does not need our permission to do whatever he has set out to do. He is not like us.

"Apart from me you can do nothing."

Yes, that is the difficult truth that many fail to grasp. God is not a man nor does He have our instincts (sinful) and personalities (fallen). He is as far from our comprehension as is the vastness of the known universe.